NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A sleepless night for Chandler Parsons led to a long day for the Commodores.
The sophomore scored a career-high 27 points and shot 7 for 8 from 3-point range as No. 24 UF (17-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) beat Vanderbilt (12-7, 1-4 SEC) 94-69 in Memorial Gymnasium.
Parsons' missed free throw in the final seconds of UF's loss to South Carolina on Wednesday cost his team a win.
Sunday, he led the Gators to their largest victory of the season.
"When you have the rhythm going, and a little momentum is going your way, it's pretty easy," Parsons said. "It feels good to come into a hostile environment on the road and come away with one in a must-win situation."
When the Gators returned home from Columbia, S.C., a little after 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning, most of Parsons' teammates went to bed.
He spent the night in the UF practice facility trying to shoot away the memory of his mistake.
"He went from a kid on Wednesday in the locker room crying his eyes out to the best game of his career," UF coach Billy Donovan said. "I tried to explain to him that's how fragile all this stuff is. In one game you can go from the lowest point of your basketball career to an extremely high moment."
UF went 1 for 3 from 3-point range in the second half against South Carolina. Parsons opened the game against Vanderbilt by making five in a row.
"I think Chandler has a great opportunity to grow from this," Donovan said. "You talk about the emotional roller coaster that he's been through from Wednesday to Sunday. It's a lot. We'll see how he handles this."
Parsons, who seemingly couldn't miss Sunday, has struggled to shoot the ball all season.
Coming into the game, he was shooting just 27 percent from three-point range.
"(Chandler) is one of the best shooters in the country. He's just been in a slump," sophomore guard Nick Calathes said. "I told him he's thinking about it too much, and to just shoot the ball the way he has been and they would fall."
The Gators broke the UF record for threes in a half when Calathes (15 points) hit the Gators' 12th of the game with the buzzer sounding just before halftime.
UF went 1 for 15 from three in last year's 61-58 loss to the Commodores in Nashville. This time around, the Gators thrived behind the arc, going 15 for 25.
"We have a lot of guys who can shoot the three," Erving Walker said. "When we get good looks, we expect to knock them down."
Walker, who scored a career-high 17 points, was one of four Gators to score in double figures.
Walter Hodge made his way into the stat sheet with 10 points in the first half but failed to get on the board in the second.
Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy played only 15 minutes and scored just 4 points in the game.
The Australian big man was slowed by plantar fasciitis, an inflamed tendon in the bottom of the foot.
"You could tell something was wrong with him," Donovan said. "He just wasn't himself."
